Poll: Are you hoping for Isabel to hit you or miss you?

[msbee]

Hurricane Luis of 1995 was a Category Four hurricane while moving over the Leeward Islands.

It sure was !
and the damage and heartache it caused is still felt to this day.
and don't talk about the aftermath.
you don't ever want to go through something like that again
we still remember it all too well!

[McDowell Boricua]

I hope it doesn't hit anybody. I still don't know how someone would want to be hit by a monster like this. :?

[JetMaxx]

This is the silliest poll I've seen in a long time.
Anyone who wants a 135+ mph hurricane to slam into their coastal city is a full fledged idiot....

Ask folks who survived hurricane Andrew while they're homes were blown apart around them...ask residents who were fortunate enough to survive hurricane Camille in Mississippi. I have a friend who was 8 years old in 1969, and she still has nightmares about almost drowning in Camille's storm surge. Ask folks who survived hurricane Betsy in Louisiana....trying to avoid hordes of crazed poisonous snakes driven into neighborhoods from flooded marshes.

The aftermath of a major hurricane is just as traumatic as the hurricane itself....there was a total upheaval in hundreds of thousands of Floridian's lives after Andrew. There was no electricity for weeks in Homestead after Andrew...nor in South Carolina after Hugo---it wasn't any fun without air conditioning either. People were paying $50 bucks for a bag of ice in Charleston...and chain saws were being sold for $500 or more....it was horrible.

There was nearly a total breakdown of law and order in south Dade after Andrew's rampage. I still remember homeowners walking the streets with shotguns in hand to stop looters...because the cops were too busy to stop everyone breaking the law. As bad as anytime is for a powerful hurricane to strike Florida...now is the worst. Many national guardsmen are overseas in Iraq, leaving limited resources to maintain order and distribute relief supplies.

I hope this hurricane fizzles or somehow misses Florida and the U.S. I don't believe it will...but I sure hope God has mercy and turns it away.

PW

[Anonymous]

Have any of you hurricane lovers out there EVER thought what it would REALLY be like if a Major Cane like Izzy came to your home town?

Okay. Isabel is a 135 mph, Category 4 storm. You've been glued to your TV set for over a week. You just can't wait for the storm to hit. You live and work in Miami, Florida.

Isabel intensifies to a Cat 5 with 160 mph winds and you are just electrified with excitement.

You are on Storm2k 24/7 and the board has grown to over 1500 members in days!!!! The chat room has 350 peeps in it night after night. You can't even read the posts.

The forecasters on the weather channel are harried and tired from hours and hours and hours of nonstop cane coverage.

You have long since driven your family and friends crazy.

The hurricane approaches Miami. It's gonna hit dead-on.

There is a frenzy for plywood and water and God only knows what else. The ppl in the stores are not very friendly. Everyone in there is there for themselves.

The peeps that are scared of the cane are choking the highways. US 1 is backed up clear to South Carolina. Don't delude yourselves: It will be a nightmare on the highways. Everyone will be trying to leave Dodge at the very same time and it will be GRIDLOCK. Don't think folks will be nice. Rather, it will be the very opposite. It will be the very worst thing you can imagine. Even even-minded folks will be scared real bad by all the bedlam going on around them. This is an unavoidable reality: Peeps with medical conditions, heart issues, will be overdosing on anxiety and having heart attacks.

Medical personnel will NOT be able to reach them. The roads, ALL of the roads, will be PACKED solid. It will just be too bad.

A REAL CAT 4 or 5 HURRICANE IS NO PLACE FOR DREAMERS, and you best get that straight NOW!!!!!!

I don't know much about Miami, but I do know that Florida is a relatively flat place. Storm surge would inundate many low lying places.

Any of you been through Andrew, 1992? Or Camille, 1969?

A storm like Isabel, especially if it became a Cat 5 with 160 mph winds which I believe this cane could become, would level most of the structures it came in contact with.

This stuff about having a Hurricane Party in a storm like Isabel is total nonsense. Worse than that, it is madness!!! I for one do NOT want to see peeps die in this cane, but it would happen. People dumb enough and stupid enough to try and ride it out.

To actually want this storm to hit you-------WHY?!!!!!!!

Many innocents would perish, just from heart attacks, related and unrelated automobile accidents, over arguments in stores over plywood, over gasoline for their vehicles................Look, Miami like any other city is gonna have its problems. But you add heat, humidity, an oncoming Cat 4 or 5 hurricane and your everyday stresses (from your job, from whatever) and that's one heck of a high-octane mixture that's gonna EXPLODE!!!!!!


You take your ordinary situations, like ppl driving that are drunk or have a medical emergency like an epileptic attack while driving or anything like that, that causes an accident and ties up traffic...............

Your sitting on the highway. The darn traffic is stopped. What the heck is the darned holdup? You've had a really bad, bad day at the office. Your boss is on the verge of firing you. Jobs are scarce these days. Just read any newspapers. You're all wound up. You know a storm is approaching. You've GOT to pick up your child at daycare at 5pm sharp, and no one's gonna look out for him if you're not there. The whole city is crazy, and its driving you crazy too. Your tooth is aching and you wish to God that you hadn't put off going to the dentist (Believe me, I know what that's like, and I do mean personally!!!). Its 87 degrees and the dewpoint is pushing 83 degrees and your A/C conked out on you just last week and you don't have the cash to fix it because of other ridiculous bills!! So you're hot and sweaty and anxious and all you need now is a Cat 5 hurricane!!! The traffic has not moved in over 20 minutes!!!!

WHAT THE SAM HILL IS THE HOLDUP!!!

The radio announcer on your car radio (thank God thats working) just said Hurricane Isabel is heading straight for Miami and he cites things from the 1992 storm, Andrew. He states the sustained winds are now up to 160 mph. Dark clouds can be seen to the east. The winds are already picking up. This does your already frazzled nerves no good, no good at all.......the radio goes on and on about many, many accidents and unprecedented traffic jams.

You feel you are gonna snap.

This would be going on all over the region. Thousands of innocent ppl all caught up in the drama that is Hurricane Isabel.


Don't go wishing for this stuff. I have mentioned but a millionth of what it would actually be like. There is NOTHING exciting about a hurricane like Izzy actually hitting anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would cause chaos and hardship and deaths long before it hit land. When it did, Isabel would wreak terrible havoc. People who have homes that they worked for 30 years to pay off the mortgage would lose their homes in only one night!!!! Suppose they are now 69 years old!!!!! Where the heck are they gonna go now?!!!!

I'm addressing YOU, Hurricane Lovers!!!!!!!!! Those of you who secretly WISH Izzy would become a Cat 5 like Camille and smash into Florida or some other place!!!!

DON'T WISH FOR THIS!!!!!!! It's gonna cause wretched hardship!!! It's gonna kill a lot of people!!!!!! It's gonna over load our already lurching economy!!!!

Go to you churches and PRAY and implore God Almighty to turn this storm out to sea as a Fish Spinner!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!

NO ONE NEEDS IT!! NO ONE WANTS IT!!!!!



-Jeb

[ColinD]

This is the silliest poll I've seen in a long time.

Cool and it was my first post ever. I hope to provide you with some more entertainment in the days ahead.

[weatherluvr]

GREAT post, Jeb. Hit it right on the head. SO many little details that people don't even consider until they're in that situation.

[wx247]

Just for some clarification and perspective (by the way -- good post Jeb)... hurricanes and tornadoes and very different. People can "chase" tornadoes because they don't take up vast expanses of land and they are (usually) not hit by them. It would be hard to chase a hurricane... you would have to experience the conditions as well as see them.

I am hoping and praying it is a fish.

[opera ghost]

I'm a hurricane lover. I've been begging for a weak one to roll through my hometown for years. I admit it. But this is a hurricane I never want on top of me or anyone I love.

I was there for TS Allison (Hey I know it seems like small fry to people who've lived through 'Canes. But it's the closest I've managed) I drove through the remnants of Grace earlier this summer.

Allison- I remember sitting in my boyfriends minivan- praying that the water wouldn't rise any farther- praying that we'd make it back to someone's home. No one in Houston was prepared for the kind of flash flooding that Allison caused. A woman took an elevator down to her car and drowned when the elevator doors opened into the bottom of the swimming pool that the medical center became over the course of 24 hours. Medical treatment was only available for the most serious of cases- and we're one of the top medical centers in the world. I remember sitting, finally at a friends home (the only one we could reach in the flash flooding) and watching the windows. Watching the wind drive sideways, watching but knowing that I could not step outside or I'd be blown off my feet.

It was thrilling- yes. It was even exciting. Aside from the damage and the danger I can still get a thrill out of remembering holding my hand to the window and feeling the entire HOUSE shake with the wind. But Allison destroyed several of my friends and families homes. It destroyed all but two of the multimillion dollar machines that my bosses (doctors) do all of thier work on. It destroyed on of our offices. That office is finally being reopened this winter. After all of that time. We're just now recovering from the financial blow of losing most of our machines and 30 years of cancer research. 30 years of research into cancer- that will never again be able to be accesses. I cry for all the people it could have helped.

I don't want a Hurricane here. If one manages to make it here though- I'll stay. I can't deny that dangerous thrill of watchign the world around me shake and fall to pieces. It's heartstopping- it's one hell of a show. But I dont' wish for thigns liek this. I dont' wish for the destruction.

And jsut between the posters here, myself... and the wall...

Not a single wish... not a single prayer for deliverance... is going to change the course of this hurricane. It's coming whether we want it or not- someone's going to be dealing with it. I'd rather it not be me- but if it is... thee wasn't anything I could do to change it. Even a dead clock is right two times a day- and every hurricane wisher has the chance of being correct at some point.

I'm jsut going to sit back and watch her come- if she comes ot me... she does. If she doens't- I'll be praying for the people affected. That's life in the areas threatened by hurricanes.

If you dont' ever want to be affected by one again- move inland

[Johnny]

Jeb, it seems like you are mad at people who 'wish' for hurricanes because possibly '-removed-' can change the course of nature? By reading your post that is what I got out of it. Settle down my friend. -removed- does not change the course of nature. Nature has a mind of its own and will do whatever she darn well pleases no matter who the heck is -removed-.

[JCT777]

I agree, Johnny.

Jeb - that was a very descriptive write-up and a fascinating read. But nobody has the ability to make a storm go where they want. I do find it odd that someone would wish a storm like Isabel to hit a populated area, but I will not condemn the person. They have no control over the situation. Personally, I love winter storms and wish to be buried under many feet of snow all winter long. But there are a lot of people who think I am crazy, since this would create a terrible situation if it were to happen in highly populated areas. So I feel I shouldn't criticize someone who wants to have a hurricane hit their area.

[ColinD]

People have different thresholds for risk and excitement. I bet most people here became interested in hurricanes because of a powerful storm they were in or interested in as a child. It is not surprising that some people wish to experience such power first-hand nor is it surprising that some people wish for the exact opposite. I think the poll, simple as it is, is fairly reflective of those differences.

[charleston_hugo_veteran]

I guess some people just love the thrill of survival!!??

[Anonymous]

You've got a point:


No one controls storms.


Besides, I am the crazy snow lover who is always wishing for 3 or 4 feet of snow in northern VA so I can go out and shovel it. Plus temps in the single digits and 20 to 35 mph winds to create whiteout conditions and huge drifts.


LOL!

So, perhaps I should settle down.



-Jeb

[GalvestonDuck]

*snicker* I've heard stories about how it snowed here once...a long time ago...for a few hours....little flurries...really light.

I had my share of snow in MO, CO, and KY. But it sure would be cool to get a pic of flurries dusting the white stuff on palm trees down here.

[KBBOCA]

Can't believe the question is for real! On one level I understand the thrill of dangerous weather, but can anyone TRULY be hoping for landfall for this storm?!?!

I'm usually reasonably calm about Hurricane threats and able not to worry until I know there's a real reason to worry, but Isabel truly SCARES me. I have had bad vibes about her ever since she came off the coast. I can't be hit. I'm something like 1500+ miles to her EAST on the coast of west Africa, but I am SCARED for my relatives & friends in South FL (and somewhat concerned about my house in Boca, but that is TRULY secondary.)

Please lets not joke or wishcast about a storm that could be tragic and devastating for thousands if not millions were it to hit a heavily populated area.